The Birth of a Nation premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film in a $17.5 million deal (at the time the largest deal at the festival), and won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. The film's title is an ironic callback to the 1915 KKK-focused silent film of the same name. Parker also petitioned financiers to invest in the film, ultimately getting an $8.5 million in production budget, and started filming in May 2015 in Georgia.
The film stars Parker as Turner, with Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, and Jackie Earle Haley in supporting roles. It is based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. The Birth of a Nation is a 2016 American period drama film written and directed by Nate Parker in his directorial debut.
